Here in one of Americas most daunting mission fields, I have

coached church planters who are defeated and ready to quit, and I
have assessed potential planters who have never had a major ministry setback. Sifted speaks to both groups. It offers profound biblical
wisdom from mature mentors who understand the challenges church
planters face. As one who has been deeply sifted myself in recent
years, I will be giving this book away often.
Ross Anderson, regional church planting catalyst,
Utah Advance Ministries
All of us face trials and challenges in life. Wayne Cordeiros powerful
book Sifted will equip, empower, and encourage you to experience all
of Gods strength in your greatest struggles.
Craig Groeschel, author of Soul Detox
Sifted is a refreshing and necessary work that releases church leaders to once again chase after their first love. Peeling back the selfdestructive layers of leadership with transparency and grace, Sifted
offers as much practical application as it offers hope. Its a book every
pastor, church planter, and churchgoer should read.
Brandon Hatmaker, author of Barefoot Church

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Other Books in
the Exponential Series
AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church,
Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture,
Brandon Hatmaker
Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a
Missional Church Movement,
Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson
For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel,
Matt Carter and Darren Patrick, with Joel Lindsey
On the Verge: A Journey into the Apostolic Future of the Church,
Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson
Transformation: Discipleship That Turns Lives,
Churches, and the World Upside Down,
Bob Roberts Jr.
(More titles forthcoming)

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series

Wayne Cordeiro
with

Francis Chan & Larry Osborne

pursuing grow th through

trials, challenges, and
disappointments

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ZONDERVAN
Sifted
Copyright 2012 by Wayne Cordeiro
This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.
This title is also availablein a Zondervan audioedition. Visit www.zondervan.fm.
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cordeiro, Wayne.
Sifted : pursuing growth through trials, challenges, and disappointments /
Wayne Cordeiro with Francis Chan and Larry Osborne.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-310-49447-8 (softcover)
1. SufferingReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Spiritual formation. I. Chan,
Francis, 1967 II. Osborne, Larry W., 1952 III. Title.
BV4909.C679 2012
248.892dc23
2012001611
Unless otherwise marked, Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New
American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International
Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.
Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are
offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement
by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers
for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without
the prior permission of the publisher.
All stories and case studies listed in this book are true. Some identifying features have
been changed to protect identities.
Cover design: Plain Joe Studios
Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren
Printed in the United States of America
12131415161718/DCI/2019181716151413121110987654321

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Contents
Introduction: The Twelfth Rep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Part one

heart work
1. Where Sifting Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Identifying the Two Greatest Days of Your Life. . . . 41
3. Expectations, Criticism, and Crises. . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4. Cry Out to God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Part two

home work
5. The Family Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6. Rest, Sabbath, Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7. Desperate Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
8. When You Need a Breakthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Part three

hard work
9. Hand to the Plow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
10. Accessing Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
11. Upping Your Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
12. The Classroom for Great Leadership. . . . . . . . . . 189
Epilogue: Sifted for the Sake of Others. . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

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Sifted: from to sift (verb)

To separate, examine closely, or question.
To pass through, sort, scrutinize, or inspect.

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Introduction
The Twelfth Rep

Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I

have prayed for you ... that your faith may not fail.
And when you have turned back, strengthen your
brothers.
Luke 22:3132 NIV

few years ago, I hired a fitness trainer to help me with my weight

training. (I dont bother with a trainer anymore; now I just let
my weight train itself.) Working with my trainer, I loaded several
plates onto the bar and positioned myself for a bench press. Pushing
the weight upward for the first ten reps was work, but I could handle
it. Then, the repetitions slowed and the arm vibrations began.
On the eleventh rep, I was convinced that I was done. The bar
seemed glued to my chest. I cried out in distress, Im done! Help!
Like a gleeful schoolgirl, my trainer smiled and said, Keep pushing! Now youre building muscle. Now it starts!
In my mind, I was thinking, What do you think Ive been doing
for the last ten reps? But the trainer kept up his mantra, Now youre
building muscle! Now it begins! He must have understood the
urgency I felt, because he reached down with two fingers and gave

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10 Introduction
me just enough assistance so I could lift the bar up, but not enough
to let me rest or give up.
When I felt like I was spent, he urged me to dig deep for one
last repetition, because that would be, in his words, the most important rep of all.
The following morning, even though I couldnt lift my arms
to shampoo my hair, I replayed that scene in my mind. Im sure
that every repetition was important, but I knew that my trainer had
been right: the real development of my muscles didnt begin until I
thought I was spent. On that twelfth rep, the old muscle tissue broke
down, and new and hopefully greater muscle mass took its place.
Sifting is that twelfth rep. The process of sifting, coming to that
moment when our strength is spent, is how God builds our faith.
Its a process that forms new character, tearing away old perspectives
and putting fresh truth in its place. Former habits are discarded and
wrong tendencies abandoned.
Its the rep we are most tempted to skip. But its the most important rep of all.

Sifting and the Twelfth Rep

Whenever I am going through a difficult season in life or ministry,
I find myself wishing that the process of sifting were optional. In
Luke22, Jesus tells his disciples that Satan has asked to sift them, as
one would sift wheat on a threshing room floor to separate the good
from the bad. Jesus encourages his disciples by telling them that he
has prayed for them that their faith would not fail.
I dont find this very reassuring. What Id like is for Jesus to pray
that Satan would be thwarted, or even that God would dispatch
angels to assist me. But that my faith would not fail? That doesnt
sound very reassuring! Jesus, by praying this way, seems to suggest
that theres a very good possibility that my faith might indeed fail.
Gulp!
I can picture myself dangling over a cliff, yelling for help, while
my friend kneels at a picnic table and tells me that hes praying that
my faith will not fail. This doesnt look like the picture of friendship
at all!

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Introduction 11
But heres the good news, and well talk more about this in the
pages to come: if Jesus prayer comes to passand I am confident
that it willand if my faith will stay the course, then a new caliber
of confidence in God will take place that will authorize me to give
strength to others.
And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.
When the season of sifting is finisheda nd the difficulties have
been navigated wellwe end up with a new level of faith, a quality that is not available to us by any other means. Sifting produces
a clarity about who we are and what we do, giving definition to the
work of ministry that produces long-term results and fruitfulness.
The real question, then, is not whether we will face failure. It is
how well we will face it. How we respond to the challenges and trials in our lives and ministries makes all the difference in the world.
What do you do when things dont go as you plan?
Perhaps youve planted a church or are involved in pastoral leadership or have just undertaken a new season of ministry and things
arent going as you had hoped they would. Its easy to get caught up
in an endless cycle of tweaking programs and looking for the next
tool that promises to solve every problem. Eventually, frustration,
discouragement, loneliness, and even anger can set in. Perhaps your
marriage is off balance or your finances have you on the ropes. You
find yourself continually longing and praying for breakthrough. You
want so badly to get to that next step, whatever that next step looks
like in your mind, but no matter how hard you try, that next step
never seems to arrive.
Hold tight.
You may be in a season of sifting, and if you respond correctly,
this season can be every bit as important as the time of harvest. Sifting builds the muscle of our faith, giving us the caliber of strength
we will need for what lies just around the corner. Scripture tells us
that the challenges we face in life happen for a reason, and the process of sifting refines us, revealing our weaknesses, exposing our
self-dependence and inviting us to greater faith in God and greater
dependence on his promises. Our prayer during this time is not that
we will avoid being sifted, but that we will navigate the process well,
and after weve survived, our faith will be ratified.

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12 Introduction
Lets make this personal. When the sifting begins, we all wonder,
Will I survive this at all? And if I do, will I emerge on the other side
strengthened, or will I fail? Thats the big question. Will I have the
skills, patience, and spiritual depth necessary to survive the sifting
process?
A sifted person is someone who is able, by Gods grace, to reflect
on his experience and emerge from a time of trial with a better grasp
of what matters most. Hes a person who has been tested, proven
capable and mature.

The Starting Point of Great Leaders

If youre in a season of difficult ministry right now, youre in good
company.
In the pages ahead, we provide a roadmap for successful navigation. Some of these trials weve already experienced. Some were still
facing. Know that you have guides on this journey, and as fellow
travelers, well journey together. Take comfort in knowing that every
successful leader encounters trials. For instance, consider how:
Davids training was in desert caves, hiding from his enemies,
and not in the marbled halls of a palace.
Josephs training was in the prisons of Egypt.
Moses was taughtand humbledby working as a shepherd in the sands of the Sinai.
Jacob was assigned Professor Laban as his instructor for more
than fourteen years.
Each of these leaders, when faced with a difficult challenge, had
the opportunity to retaliate, refuse, recant, or run. But they didnt do
any of those things. Instead, they chose to push through the twelfth
rep and build the real muscle of faith in the process.
The result?
David became the greatest king Israel ever had.
Joseph became second-in-command of all of Egypt and
singlehandedly saved Israel from famine.
Moses led two million people out of slavery.

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Introduction 13
Jacob became the father of the twelve tribes and helped lay
the foundation for the glorious coming of the Messiah.
God knew what he was doing.
In the chapters that follow, well look at three main areas of difficulty that we must navigate in ministryheart work, home work,
and hard work. Imagine each of these areas as a stormy ocean. Each
holds the power to capsize us, but if we pilot the seas well, we will
reach our destination. Though the crosscurrents run deep and will
seek to steer us off course, the journeys end will be worth it all, if
we navigate well.
Wayne Cordeiro
with Francis Chan and Larry Osborne

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Part ONE

heart

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Heart: noun
The center of total personality including will,
mind, and emotion.
Spirit, courage, or enthusiasm. The
innermost part of a person.

ichael Plant was a pioneer, a solo ocean adventurer. The

French called him the Top Gun of the seas because of his
passion for sailing the wild winds. He was energized by the crosscurrents of the open ocean. This may explain why he dubbed one of
his circumnavigating boats the Duracell. But his third race around
the world was different. He designed and built a $650,000 racing
vessel, a lightweight fiberglass-coated, foam-core-hull sailboat that
was scintillatingly fast. He named his promising winner the Coyote.
It was equipped with the latest in technology and designed to cut
through ocean currents like a sushi knife.
On October16, 1992, Plant launched from New York and with
great fanfare headed across the Atlantic toward France. The race, if
he was successful, would take him over twenty-four thousand miles,
and it would take nearly four months to complete. But it wasnt long
into the trip before Plant began experiencing trouble. No one heard
anything from him for several days. Then, on October21, a passing
Russian freighter picked up his transmission.
I have no power, Plant told the freighters captain, but Im
working on the problem. He ended the transmission with his
only request: Tell Helen not to worry. Helen Davis, forty-three,
was Plants fiance. This brief transmission was the last direct

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18 Heart Work
c ommunication anyone ever had with Plant. At this juncture, Plant
was almost one-third of the way across the Atlantic, some thirteen hundred miles from the spot where the Coyote eventually was
found.
After thirty-two days, the Coyote was finally spotted on a Sunday
morning by a Greek tanker. It was drifting upside down about 450
nautical miles north of the Azores, and there was no sign of the solo
pioneer. The mast, still fully sailed, plunged some eighty-five feet
into the frigid waters. The hull was intact. The keel was vertical, and
it exposed the fatal problem: the eighty-four hundred pound lead
keel bulb that weighted the boat had been sheared off. To this day,
no one knows if it was a rogue whale, sea garbage, or just a faulty
build that damaged the boat, but without the weight of the ballast,
the small boat was useless against the crosscurrents and high winds
of the open seas. The ballasts weight in the lowest part of the vessel
would give it stability and balance in the rough seas, and without
it, the vessel would become top-heavy and be easily overpowered by
the angry ocean.
To put it simply, without a keel and ballast, the boat was broken.
Im certainly not an expert on racing sailboats. I dont know all
that much about marine paints, sails, and masts. But there is one
crucial fact I do know: for a sailboat to navigate the open ocean,
there must be more weight beneath the waterline than above it.
When God begins a season of sifting in your life, the first thing
that will be tested is the ballast of your life, which is your heart. Its
the weight beneath the waterline. You cant see it, but any refining of
your heart will affect everything else you do. The heart is not about
skill, gifting, or even calling. Its deeper still. Its the epicenter, the
core of everything.
Its where you respond to God.
Its where you process events and deliberate decisions.
Its the repository from which your future is shaped.
Its that one nonnegotiable you must have intact when you
launch into open waters.
The single best thing you can do during a time of sifting is to
give yourself to the process and let Gods work run its course. Our

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Heart Work 19
prayer is that this book will help you recognize and comprehend
Gods ways so that when you encounter the crosscurrents of a wild
ocean, youll have more weight beneath the waterline than above it,
and your faith will not fail.
In the first four chapters of this book, well examine what happens when a leaders heart is sifted.

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Where Sifting
Begins
C

an you remember where you were when you first sensed Gods
call to lead a church, serve in pastoral ministry, plant a church,
or be a strategic member of a church planting team?
The call was likely very real, vivid, and powerful. God invited
you to dream big dreams for him, and you sensed God raising you
up to do a mighty work for the honor of his name. Im betting that
you could not wait to get started on this large, kingdom-oriented
adventure.
Maybe your dream looked something like this:
The church you imagined leading would be highly effective.
You envisioned that God would use it in big ways to help win
large numbers of p
eople to Christ. Lives would be changed.
Marriages healed. Families restored. This church would
accomplish much for Jesus kingdom.
You had high hopes for the limitless scope of your churchs
influence. Following the example of Scripture, your church
would be a witness to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the
ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), meaning your church would start
locally in your community and then spread its influence to
your city and then who knows how big it would get?
Perhaps you imagined that your church would evolve to
be unlike other churches. You intended to do church

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22 Heart Work
ifferently to reach a new generation. You would meet people
d
exactly where they were. There would be no stuffy dress code
at your church. No baggage from the past. Coffee would be
hot. Music would be cool. People would come to your church
because they sensed a fresh moving of Gods Spirit, and that
pull would be irresistible. You sensed that God would move
at the core of this work. The new church would gather steam,
and there would be no stopping its momentum.
Perhaps you dreamed of doing multiple services, or of starting
different church campuses in locations throughout the city
linked through video feeds. These churches would all flourish to the point where they, in turn, would start churches
of their own. Maybe your dream was eventually to grow to
the size where you needed to start your own church planting
network. Tens of thousands of lives would be changed!
The idea of helping to create a church that reaches out to the
world was alluring. You desired to enter a community and
be salt and light for the sake of Christ. You looked forward
to sharing the gospel and being a force for justice and social
action in creative and effective ways. Your vision was truly
missionalto introduce J esus to people and invite them to
step closer to him.
Regardless of the specifics of your ministerial dream, it was
undoubtedly noble, fueled by good intentions, and confirmed by
God and other Christ-followers at several strategic places along the
way. You were excited to work with the people on your team. They
were your friends and colleagues, an energetic group of like-minded
visionaries. Every person was committed to the call, and you were
certain these p
eople would remain your friends forever.
Your denomination was excited. Your spouse was in agreement
with the call. Even your kids (if you have them) saw the vision. You
all shared the same goal: to plant a church, a highly effective church.
This was going to be a powerful work for the glory of God! Dream
in hand, you began your ministry.
You had heart!
Now it has been a few years. How is the dream today? If you were

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Where Sifting Begins 23

to give an honest assessment, would you say that the work of church
leadership is anything like you envisioned it?

The Loneliest Job Youll Ever Do

All we had when we planted our first church was heart.
We didnt have chairs, let alone a sound system. We borrowed
coffee pots and sat on cafeteria tables. We used the music stands
from the band room, and everyone had plenty of time to stare at the
name of the school painted on the lectern. We didnt have much, but
we had heart!
We were thrilled that anyone would even come to our services.
Our welcoming committee formed a human gauntlet at the front
door to hug attendees. By the time a newcomer was seated, he or she
would have been hugged at least twelve times. Later when people
described us, they said, Youll know those New Hope people. They
hug everything within ten feet.
Not only did we pour our hearts into everything we did, but we
poured everything we received back into the ministry. I remember
the first offering we took. We gathered $550. We were thrilled! I
went to an office furniture outlet and bought chairs so we didnt have
to sit on cafeteria tables anymore. The following week, the first thing
my administrator did was approach the microphone and say, We
took an awesome offering of $550 last week. And you know where it
is? Youre sitting on it!
I often reminded our volunteers that a mind can reach a mind,
but only a heart can reach a heart. I prompted them to remember
this by saying, Dont wipe tables with a dish towel. Wipe tables with
your heart. Or to the greeters, I said, Dont pass out bulletins with
your hands. Pass them out with your hearts. Several months passed,
and soon we had enough money to buy our own coffee pots and even
our own sound system. We bought our own music stands, and even
had enough money left over to have the name of our church stamped
on them. It was like a taste of heaven!
One day, after wed been meeting for a while, a wise woman in
the church pulled me aside and said, Pastor, I see that we now have
our own chairs and our own tables. We have activities and classes.

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24 Heart Work
But wheres the heart we used to have? I just dont sense it like I used
to. And as she spoke, I sensed that she was right. We continued our
activities, but over time, the amount of heart that we poured into
everything diminished. We grew busy, and somewhere along the
line, though we were still committed to our mission, the passion and
excitement began to fade.
We lost our heart.
This happens more often than most realize, this loss of heart.
Have you ever watched the reality TV show Dirty Jobs? The host,
Mike Rowe, explores the messiest, hardest, and often strangest jobs
around. Each episode shows Mike working a typical day at a different dirty job. In shows past, Rowe has worked as:
a coal miner
a mule logger
a lightning rod installer
a worm dung farmer
a road kill cleaner
a sewer inspector
a hot tar roofer
Ive always wondered when Mike Rowe is going to work as a minister. Church leadership is one of the toughest jobs anyone could ever
do. Its emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically demanding.
Leading a church, particularly when planting a new church or beginning a new ministry, can be a bit like starting a new business. The
rumors are true: many of those who lead churches dont succeed, and
the church leadership graveyard is ominously overcrowded. If youve
spent time recently thinking about quitting your ministry position,
rest assured youre not the first church leader to wrestle with that
thought. But dont let that temptation overwhelm you, because there
is hope. Others have traveled this difficult road too, and they have
succeeded. Just because your ministry doesnt look like you once
hoped it would, or because you feel like you dont have the heart you
once did, doesnt mean that you should throw in the towel.
The reality is that most church leaders encounter great difficulty in the complicated task of planting, establishing, and guiding healthy churches. Many church leaders lose heart. Each year,

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Where Sifting Begins 25

four thousand new churches start across North America. Within any
given five-year period, nearly twenty thousand people are working
in the trenches of church planting. For a few of these planters, those
first years are a dynamic, exciting time filled with one perceived
success after another. But research confirms that for the majority
of planters, this is typically a time of great struggle. Not only are
there the logistics and dynamics of birthing a new church, but there
are the struggles with loneliness and discouragement that inevitably
come from working hard in an entrepreneurial, pioneering role. I was
surprised to find in a recent poll that fifteen hundred ministers leave
pastoral ministry every month for various reasons. Thats a staggering number. For one reason or another, these leaders feel the need to
end their ministry. And not only do church leaders struggle through
the sifting process, many churches struggle as well. A recent poll
showed that each year some thirty-five hundred congregations die in
North America. Thats a staggering thirty-five thousand congregations that will become extinct in the next ten years.
Regardless of the church model, ministry approach, or tradition,
the bulk of church leaders face difficulties that at some point lead
them to question whether they should even be in ministry in the
first place. They daydream, wondering if maybe theres another line
of work they could be doing, an easier one, surely. Perhaps serving
as a coal miner.
Or even as a worm dung farmer.

Diagnosing a Loss of Heart

So what is it that makes church leadership, and church planting in
particular, so difficult? Why do so many leaders lose heart and want
to quit? The heart, metaphorically speaking, can be a tricky organ.
Proverbs 4:23 gives us this warning: Watch over your heart with all
diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. There are several ways
in which the pressures of ministry can lead to a loss of heart:
Youve planted a church, but your church has peaked at fifty
people and doesnt seem to be growing any further. Youre confused, disillusioned, perhaps even embarrassed. Maintaining a

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26 Heart Work
small, nongrowing church wasnt what you signed up for. Your
dreams have died and you have become frustrated.
Perhaps your church has had the opposite problem; youve
grown by great leaps and bounds. Youre already at three
services in your first two years. But youre constantly being
pulled in a dozen different directions, and frankly, youre
exhausted. The never-ending stream of late nights, early
mornings, and crisis interventions has left you lonely, worn
out, tired, and perhaps even estranged from your friends, colleagues, spouse, and children.
The church is slowly gaining speed, but the systems and policies that provide for smooth sailing arent falling in place. It
feels like youre the captain of a ship in the midst of a violent
storm, but that storm never ends. Day after day, waves crash
over the bow, threatening to sink your vessel with all on
board.
The finances simply havent been there. You planned. You
projected. You raised as much support as is appropriate. You
made the sacrifices, but youre still broke. The bills always
seem to outpace the giving.
You planted with a team of great friends. When you first
started, everyone was excited to begin the work. But youre
tired nowa ll of youand relationships are strained. Tasks
that need to be done are falling through the cracks. Theres
still much work to be done, but it feels like your team (or
much of your team, anyway) has run out of gas.
Your churchs vision was never firmly solidified to begin
with. Part of your team wanted to become the next megachurch. The other part wanted to keep things simple and
organic. Everyone figured the culture of your church could
be worked out along the way. But now the team is divided,
and it shows.
Everythings going as well as can be expected, but the day-in,
day-out job of being a church leader is simply overwhelming
and is wearing you thin. The treadmill is always running, and
you are caught in the cycle. Now the work God is doing through
you is outpacing the amount of work he is doing in you.

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In various places throughout this book, were going to invite you
to do some work on your own to make the content personal and to
help you apply what you are learning. Right now, we invite you to
take a moment to define your biggest challenge. Then, try to articulate your most consistent, heartfelt prayer for your church. Grab a
pen and jot a few notes in the spaces below. How would you complete the following sentences?
The biggest challenge facing me as a church leader is:
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
God, when it comes to this church, I truly need you to:
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

Let me propose a radical idea. It might sound a bit strange at

first. What if everything thats happening to you right now, all of the
difficulties you face in your role in this church, even the pressure to
lose heart, is exactly what needs to happen to you?
Yes, everything.
What if God has indeed called you to lead or plant a church, and
no, you havent misread his call? What if God is actually calling you
to lead this church through a very rocky stretch of time, the current
season you are now smack in the middle of, and God has a very good
reason for your being in this difficult season? Thats the premise of
this book. Without knowing the specifics of your situation, thats
what I bet is happening to you right now.
Its called being sifted.

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28 Heart Work

Frustrated with God

Larry Osborne
The thought process of a new church leader often goes like
this: after completing his formal education, or after sensing
Gods call to plant a church, he automatically believes three
things:

1. That he is ready to begin the work right away.

2. That he will immediately see success according to
his definition of success.
3. That since God has called him to this work, he will
seldom, perhaps never, encounter difficulties in
the process.

So the new church leader begins the work immediately

but quickly realizes hes in way over his head. Or he begins
the church, but the church doesnt look anything like he
envisioned. Or he encounters difficulties but wonders why
God isnt making the path easier.
Those unmet expectations form the basis for disillusionment, frustration, and the longing to quit. Whatever he
had hoped for hasnt been achieved, and at the end of the
day, a church planter is frustrated with himself, his planting team, his denomination or network, his job, and maybe
even with God.
Often, the prayers of frustration cant even be articulated yet. But if they were, they would sound something
like, God, why didnt you come through for this church
in bigger ways? Or, God, why arent you helping me out
more? Or, God, why is this so hard?
The logic behind these prayers seems straightforward:

a. God called you to lead a great church.

b. You were faithful to that calling.
c. But the church you planted seems less than great
right now.

And you dont feel good about it. You dont know what
to do.

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The bottom line theme in our prayers is often that God
could haveand should havehelped out more. But apparently he hasnt. So you wonder if something has gone
wrong. The soul-searching keeps you awake at night. Perhaps you misread Gods call. Perhaps youre not really a
strong leader to begin with. Perhaps this church leadership
thing will defeat you in the end. Perhaps you should step off
the treadmill while you still can.
As you close your eyes and try to get some sleep, the
thought of closing the doors on the church plant and heading into another line of work is very tempting. Maybe, you
think, it is time to abandon ship.
Hold on. Hope is close at hand.

The Sifting Principle

The concept of being sifted is seldom, perhaps never, taught in
todays church leadership manuals. The majority of church leadership books out there today are about models and approaches. They
are doing books. They will tell you how to clarify your vision or
build a better team or attract more people to your church, and the
like. Those books are not wrong, and Larry, Francis, and I encourage you to read and study as many of them as you can. This book,
by contrast, is about being. It revolves around the personal care and
leadership health of emerging leaders. It helps leaders such as you
look to your core and thrive in leadership as a whole person: spiritually, physically, and emotionally.
Let me make one thing clear: I hate being sifted.
Now that Ive gotten that off my chest and you realize that Im
not all that spiritual, we can get on with how to stomach this distasteful medicine. I know, I know, Im supposed to be thankful in
all things (1Thess. 5:16), but when the struggles linger, I weaken.
Its not always the depth of the pain. It is the length of it.
As I have mentioned, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. I guess I
have become humbler, wiser, softer, more understanding through the
sifting process, but forgive me, its still distasteful. But you cannot
progress without it.

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30 Heart Work
The concept of being sifted has both a negative and a positive
connotation. At its core, being sifted means going through challenges and trials as a leader. Thats the negative. No one likes to go
through trials. Yet the process is unavoidable. A leader will be sifted;
thats not the question. The question is will he emerge from the
sifting as a successful leader? How will he respond to the trials and
challenges he faces?
Consider the following passages that describe the process of
being sifted.
Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I
have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when
you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.
Luke 22:3132 NIV

We often assume that whenever God opens a door for us, everything will go smoothly. But open doors always come with adversaries. In this passage, we learn that the Devil has asked for permission
to sift Gods disciples. In other words, many of the difficulties we
face have been purposely placed in our path. As the book of Job
reminds us, God, for reasons unknown to us, sometimes allows this
to happen. Yet the fact that we will inevitably face challenges as a
disciple of Christ and a leader in his church shouldnt leave us hopeless. Nor should we assume that challenges indicate a closed door
or imply that we have failed in our calling. J esus shows us that the
sifting process has an end. When the season of sifting is behind us,
we will be stronger, and with that strength we can then turn and
strengthen others.
Scripturally, we know that difficulties can sometimes come to us
from the Devil, yet sometimes they come directly from the hand of
God. In fact, God tested all the great patriarchs of the Old Testament at one time or another, allowing them to experience difficult
circumstances to try their faith, leading them to greater reliance on
him. When something challenging is happening to us, we shouldnt
spend too much time trying to figure out who is causing it. The
choice we face is simple: will we trust God and look to him throughout the difficulty we face, regardless of the cause, or not?

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I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In
this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome
the world.
John 16:33 NIV

In this passage, we learn that J esus does not promise his disciples
an easy road to travel. Rather, he acknowledges that somehow trouble finds its way into your daily calendar. If youre in any position
of leadership, I have two words for you: expect trouble! Of course,
you must outlast it; you musnt succumb. But you will have trouble.
Welcome to the ministry.
Again, however, this verse of warning also comes with a promise:
Christ has overcome the world. When we live in Christ, resting in
what he provides for us and promises us, our hearts are renewed.
He is greater than the enemies we face in this world (1John 4:4).
His overcoming may take longer than you think, and it may come
strangely packaged. You may lose things you wanted to keep, and
keep things you wanted to lose, but he will overcome if you do not
let your faith fail.
Im still at the tail end of a two-year season in which the depth of
my pain was attended by a feeling that I was trapped. I couldnt just
resign and jump on a boat going to Tarshish. Feeling trapped in the
pain of an unresolved situation is like spiritual waterboarding for me.
And in the midst of it, I have said and done things Im not proud of.
But the bottom line is, my faith cannot fail. I can feel like a failure, think I am a failure, but like Job, I must say, Though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. The disiciples proclaimed the same sentiment when J esus spoke of his body and blood as communion. Many
decided at that point that there were other churches more civilized
than this one led by a rogue, self-proclaimed messiah. Yet his closest
disciples said, Were here. To whom shall we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life.
The truth is that you will fail. You simply wont have what it
takes when you begin. You may have the calling, the zeal, the energy,
and the support. You might have the location, the invitation, and
even the money. But when you begin you wont have what it takes
to finish.

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32 Heart Work
What is that? you might ask. Whats missing is that inner core,
the tensile strength of faith that is revealed only under strain. It is
a quality of character that is tested not in port but in the open seas.
And it is this testing that ratifies your calling, not your attendance at
a church planters boot camp or the boards seal of approval. Neither
your degree nor the letters of commendation you receive speak to
this need. It is something that can be acquired only through failure,
learning your limits and learning to trust not in yourself but in the
God who has called you.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you
protect them from the evil one.
John 17:15 NIV

In this passage, J esus is praying for his disciples. His request is not
that they will be taken out of the world. He doesnt pray that they
be removed from the challenging situations they will face. Instead,
he prays that God will protect them in the midst of those challenging situations. His prayer is that we dont go over the edge: throw
in the towel and give in to an affair, or drug ourselves to escape the
pain, or brashly end our marriages in order to feel a release from the
responsibilities we can no longer handle.
Jesus knows that we are weak and that we will be frail at times,
but he prays that our faith will not fail.

The Unknown
If we wish to follow Christ and become leaders in his church, the
question is not whether we will be sifted. The Bible indicates that
trials will come if you are pursuing effective Christian leadership.
Sifting will happen. Know that it will happen. The only unknown
is when.
The good news is that we are sifted for a reason; its a process
that leads to refinement. A sifted person looks back on his trials with
a different perspective. He emerges from the process wiser, having
been tested, knowing his capabilities and weaknesses. Ultimately,
our prayer should not be that we are spared from this process but
that we will learn to navigate it well, that when God is done with the
sifting, our faith will thrive.

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Most of the growth and refinement that comes from the sifting process begins when you accept that you are exactly where God
wants you to be, at least for the time being. The key is that we learn
not to fight against the sifting, not to fight against what God is
doing in our lives, and learn to acknowledge that he is ultimately in
control of the process. Practically, one of the best ways to understand
and cooperate with the process is to ask yourself hard questions,
questions that reveal your motives, questions that uncover the desires
of your heart:
Am I willing to lead a congregation of fifty people and do it
with a sense of privilege and honor rather than with a sense of
defeat?
Can I be okay with continuing to serve in a bivocational role?
Am I willing to serve and lead, even if I am not known or
acknowledged for what I do, even if other leaders see me as a
failure?
Am I ready to allow this fledgling church to be imperfect, to
rely on scramble-management and trust God in the details,
letting go of control for a season?
Am I willing to let my expectations and ambitions go unmet
for a while?
These questions help us to understand the motives and desires
that drive our ambition and our sense of calling. Failure, discouragement, disappointment, and difficulty often will reveal areas in our
hearts where we are listening to ourselves and not to God. Thats why
its important to spend time listening in the midst of this season. If
we fail to listen to what God is trying to teach us through these experiences, we end up misreading Gods language. Many do, and they
call it quits prematurely, leaving behind a string of failed ministry
attempts or church plants.

Who We Are
When I started working on this book, I called upon two dear friends,
Larry Osborne and Francis Chan, and we met for conversation at
an office I keep in Oregon. As we talked and shared stories, each

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34 Heart Work
of us realized that though our experiences were quite different, we
had learned some common lessons along the way. Unless otherwise
noted, I (Wayne) will be using the first person voice throughout this
book to keep our stories and tone consistent, but know that all of the
lessons in this book come from our common conversation. We all
have lived through these ideas and affirm the lessons shared.
The process of being sifted is different for each of us, yet its
always characterized by a challenging season that lasts for an
extended period of time. Despite our best efforts and intentions, we
have all experienced setbacks, failures, and disillusionment as leaders
in the church.
Leaving Behind Success (Francis Chan)

Francis and his wife planted their first church, Cornerstone, in 1994
with only thirty people. Within two months, the church grew to
more than one hundred people. After six years, the church had sixteen hundred members. And then just two years later, the church
exploded to a congregation of four thousand members. There was
much fruit during this time, yet this was also a time of refinement
and shaping by God. Though most people see the outer success
the large numbers and Franciss growing platform as a writer and
speakermost of that came after the twelfth rep, the time of sifting.
Franciss mother died while giving birth, and his stepmother died
when he was nine years old. His father died when he was only twelve.
These losses had a profound impact on Francis, and he grew up with
a deep sense of insecurity, a feeling that there might not be a tomorrow. A few years back, Francis wrote a book called Crazy Love. It was
a simple book that talked about how the God of the universe loves
us with a radical, unconditional, and self-sacrificing love. The book
immediately shot onto the New York Times bestseller list and ended
up selling more than two million copies. The success of the church
Francis planted and the widespread success of his first book were
both unexpected, and these successes caused an unexpected amount
of soul searching, even disillusionment, for him.
A few years before writing Crazy Love, Francis had taken a trip
to Uganda, a trip that altered his thinking and living. This trip,

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and several that followed, led him to a place of deep concern for
the worlds poor and marginalized as he dared to ask the question,
What does it look like to love my neighbor as myself? Francis and his
family downsized, moving into a smaller home. He led his church
in several large initiatives to collect money to give to the poor. After
his book became wildly successful, Francis decided to donate the
royalties to the Isaiah 58 Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps
the poor internationally.
Then, in 2010, Francis surprised everyone by announcing to his
congregation that he felt called to resign from his position at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley. The blogosphere went wild. Some
people wondered if he had fallen into sin and needed to resign,
which wasnt the case. Others championed him and called him a
hero, which also made him uncomfortable. As of this writing, Francis isnt yet sure how his new calling will take shape, but he lives
each day with confidence that God is good and that God will lead
him. Despite his earlier successesa popular book and a growing
churchGod has Francis in a new season of life, a season of sifting. Franciss response is a great example of how to respond when
this season occurs. Regardless of what we do, we live each day in the
confidence that God loves us, that we belong to him, and that he is
faithful to lead and guide us to become the person he wants us to be.
What we do will naturally flow from who we become as the person
God is shaping us into.
More Than a Building (Larry Osborne)

Larry Osborne, the second contributor to this book, is the senior

pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, California, and the author
of several bestselling books, including Sticky Church, Sticky Teams,
and Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.
In 1980, a new church plant that was meeting in the cafeteria of a
high school called Larry to be their senior pastor. He was just twentyeight years old and had no previous experience as a senior pastor.
On his first Sunday, 127 adults and children gathered for worship.
In the weeks, months, and years that followed, attendance declined
from that original number. These tough years were a time of testing,

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36 Heart Work
a season of sifting (Larry: I refer to them as the dark years), and
looking back Larry is aware that God was doing something vital during that time. Unknown to those involved, God was slowly putting
together a solid core team of staff and elders, the team that eventually
led North Coast Church into the thriving ministry it is today.
One of the key turning points in those early years was a decision
they made to build the ministry of the church around small groups,
which quickly became the hub of all activity and spiritual growth.
After some bumps and bruises, the plan began to produce fruit, and
by 1990, North Coast Church had grown to nearly eight hundred
people. The church met in a rented building, and just as they were getting comfortable and seeing some growth in numbers, they lost their
lease. With just enough money in the bank to buy a used car, Larrys
congregation faced a tough decision: should they stretch and spend
nearly two million dollars to buy and fix up a building, or should they
play it safe and rent a much smaller storefront that they could easily
pay for? The storefront would comfortably accommodate the current
congregation but would effectively shut the door on future growth.
The leaders chose to stretch and sacrifice to buy a larger property, and their risk paid off. By 1998, more than three thousand
people were attending each weekend, jam-packed into a facility
with a five-hundred-seat sanctuary. It was a wild ride, and they
often ran out of space. They lacked the funds and time to build a
bigger facility, and so the church decided to innovate and provide
an additional service using live worship and a video feed of the
weekend message. Much to everyones surprise, the gamble paid
off. Their creative new approach kick-started a national movement
of churches offering worship through video venues, one of the key
factors leading to the growth of the multisite church movement
several years later.
In 2000, the church began the process of acquiring a forty-acre
property with plans to create a new campus. The plan took ten years
to reach fruition, and in June 2010, the church finally moved to its
new location. Today, using a combination of live worship services
and video worship venues, the church meets on three campuses and
offers numerous worship options every weekend with more than
eight thousand people in attendance.

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Larry admits that one of the biggest challenges along the way
has been making sure that North Coast Church is more than a
building. Though North Coast Church has won national acclaim
and has been recognized as one of the ten most influential and
innovative churches in America, the focus has always been on
bringing the Word of God to people and letting Christ change their
lives. The church does extensive community outreach, averaging
nearly two service projects a day each year. Several years back, they
closed the church for a weekend and held the largest weekend of
service ever recorded by a single church. During a forty-eight-hour
span, more than six thousand members from North Coast Church
fanned across the community to complete nearly one hundred ser
vice projects. Today, they hold similar events roughly every eighteen
months.
The Unwelcome Wagon (Wayne Cordeiro)

And me?
My wife, Anna, and I moved to Hilo, Hawaii, in 1984. I was
thirty-one years old, and the church I began to pastor had twentytwo people. Eleven years later, the congregation had grown to nearly
two thousand p
eople. We built a new building, and everything
seemed to be going well, despite the regular and intense pressures of
pastoral ministry.
Then in 1995, I felt very strongly that God wanted me to start all
over againfrom scratch. This was a different sort of sifting process
for me, a real journey of faith. I was now forty-two years old, and I
sensed God asking me to plant another church 250 miles north of
our current location. We had already birthed nine churches in our
eleven years, and when I first sensed the call, I assumed that Id just
train up another planter and send him. But God had something else
in mind. I ended up handing the leadership baton off to my assistant,
and my wife and three children and I left our comfortable home and
church family to start over on this new church planting adventure
in Honolulu. When I arrived, I pinned a map of Honolulu on my
wall. It was a city of one million p
eople. In my mind, I would walk
the streets and pray for the salvation of those living along the roads.

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38 Heart Work
Sometimes I would run my hand down the streets, and I felt like I
could actually sense the pain of those who resided there.
On September10, 1995, we held our first service at the new church.
The plant started off with a shout, and we quickly went off the charts.
Within six months, we were averaging fifteen hundred in attendance.
We were doing three services when God challenged me to do four, and
then five. I was tired and spent, but the church was growing and I had
no choice but to push through the twelfth rep on the bench press.
Thats when the sifting began again.
A group of disgruntled pastors asked for a lunch meeting with
me. I had received letters from several of them in the past months
because some of their congregants had left their churches and
were now attending ours. Sheep stealer, Watered down gospel
preacher, and Its all built on your personality were phrases oft
quoted. They even began calling our church Waynes World. It was
humorous at first, but then it started cutting deep.
In anticipation of the tribunal, I wrestled with how to respond to
their allegations. I gathered my defense and rehearsed my rationale.
The evening before, I wrote down my arguments and justified my
actions on a sheet of paper on my nightstand. Satisfied with my line
of reasoning, I crawled into bed. But I couldnt sleep. God prompted
me to get on my knees again. I was secretly waiting for him to reveal
an even better defense for my vindication and had my pen poised for
fresh ammunition when I heard the Lord say to me, Tomorrow you
will die. That wasnt exactly what I had in mind! Again, he repeated
those words: Tomorrow you will die. Confused, I pressed him for
clarity and heard him say to me, The reason why there is so much
antagonism among the leadership of this community is that no one
is willing to die. I am asking that you not use any defense. Be silent,
receive what they say, and die instead. There will be no victory until
someone willingly chooses to die instead of win.
I have to confess that as spiritual as this all sounds, at the time I
was unwilling to go there. I wrestled with God, struggling with my
need to defend myself, until I was finally at peace with his request.
Focusing my attention on the cross, I was reminded that Jesus didnt
overcome the power of evil and sin by unleashing a legion of angels

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in righteous judgment. He was victorious through his willingness to
suffer humiliation and die.
The following day, I chose to die. I decided that I wouldnt fight
back; I wouldnt try to defend myself. At first, it felt like having my
teeth drilled without nerve blockers, but I eventually saw that this
was a spiritual battle, not a relational one. What was happening had
more to do with what God was accomplishing for his eternal purposes than what I wanted done in the immediate, temporal future.
As I listened to the stories these pastors and church leaders shared
with me, I began to really understand their plight and appreciate
their pain. Ive heard someone say that faith can be defined as living
in advance what you will understand only in reverse. Approaching
this event, I know that I was clueless, knowing only what God had
revealed to me. There were no guarantees. All I had was faith.
Today, I enjoy good relationships with the pastors in our area.
Most of the tensions and bitter resentment have been resolved. Our
church averages fourteen thousand people and nine satellite campuses, and more than 110,000 people have made first-time decisions
to become Christians. Weve also planted twenty other New Hope
churches on Oahu, and 122 churches throughout the Pacific Rim
and beyond, including campuses in Hawaii, Las Vegas, Seattle, Los
Angeles, Montana, the Philippines, Japan, Myanmar, and Australia.
But the sifting process is never truly over, even though there are
seasons of greater trial. The Lord has recently been taking me through
yet another season. In 2008, the blistering pace of my ministry patterns and work habits caught up with me, and I found myself flat
on my back in a hospital in California undergoing emergency heart
surgery. By Gods grace, I survived, but I knew I needed to change
the way I lived. I had been going too fast for too long, and God had a
new message for methat church leadership is as much about being
as it is about doing, one of the core messages of this book.

When Youre Being Sifted

And you?
The specifics of your story are undoubtedly different from ours.
Yet among you and me and Larry and Francis, we all share many

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40 Heart Work
common traits and goals. We all want to see the gospel advanced.
We all want to see healthy churches established throughout the
world. We all, ultimately, want to follow Jesus Christ with all our
hearts. And weve all felt the Lord saying no or wait to us in
seasons when weve wanted him to say yes.
The bottom line, what were all hoping for in the end is thriving church leaders of great and godly character establishing new
congregations for the glory of God. We want you to be involved in
significant, effective ministry, and at the same time to learn how to
maintain your heart through the difficult stretches.
Our encouragement is that, rather than fighting this season of
sifting, you learn the language of God, that you cooperate with what
he is doing. Keep pressing the weight you are holding even though
you may feel like quitting. God has promised to give you just enough
assistance to lift the weight while still building the necessary depth
of character and strength that he intends to develop in you. God will
do something through you when you first allow him to do something
in you.

Remember
God must first accomplish something in you before he can
accomplish something through you.

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